Over time, I’ve come to see this as something less than natural. Then again, obsessions seldom are.

That goes for me, in particular. You see, I didn’t grow up Jewish. I wasn’t raised with the flicker of black and white newsreels or magazine pages illustrating the mass extermination of the Six Million embedded in my consciousness. I didn’t listen to my family recite with grim certitude that axiomatic declaration from the Haggadah, ve-hi-she-amda: ‘In every generation they rise up against us to destroy us.’ I was spared feeling umbilically connected to that base-line truth: “They will always hate us. They will always come after us. This is our lot in life: Shver zu sein a yid.”

Instead, I had to learn that particular lesson. Sometimes I feel that I am still learning it.

It wasn’t meant to be that way. I had chosen to become a Jew – for all the right reasons. I certainly didn’t embrace Judaism because I signed up to what one of Howard Jacobson’s characters mordantly refers to as ‘Five Thousand Years of Bitterness’. I did it because I believed in the transcendent, edifying ideas of Judaism, of Jewish thought, Jewish history, Jewish custom and with time, the most transformative Jewish concept of all: Jewish peoplehood.

In retrospect, my first encounter with the burden of antisemitism was actually quite comical. When I told my Catholic mother that I was converting to Judaism she said: ‘You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. The hatred, the discrimination … you’ll find it hard to get a job.’

I could barely conceal a wry smile. You see, at the time I was working on my PhD in Jewish Studies.

“Actually, Ma,” I retorted, “I think it’s just the opposite. If anything I think it will help.”

Now while it turns out that my mother was arguably wrong insofar as becoming Jewish may have contributed beneficially to my career path – she was right about the hatred and the discrimination.

And for years I resisted it.

I refused to be defined by those who hate us. I shunned fellow Jews who always seemed to play the ‘victim’ card – for whom the ‘Five Thousand Years of Bitterness’ served as the dark sun around which their Jewish planet revolved.

I cringed at what sometimes accosted me as congenital jingoism, reflexive fatalism, and a sense of the inevitable – the unassailable conviction that it will all end badly in the bitter by-and-by.

Not for me. I was pulled as if by some irresistible tropism to Judaism’s greatness, its contribution to ethics, Western philosophy and by the imperative of tikkun olam: repairing the world one human being, one act, one mitzvah at a time.

And then 9/11 happened.

The world changed. The hatred, the lies, the venom and the Five Thousand Years of Bitterness – no, the ideas and the ideologies that drove those millennia of oppression – were no longer distant and fixed historical phenomena but broke through to the chaotic present and erupted into a global consciousness that is still being felt today.

This is also, I would maintain, a key reason why we’re here today: Because we know that it didn’t go away – and that in retrospect we may have been naive or deluded to think that it would.

And the more this particular recognition sinks in, the more we realize just how very difficult it is to talk about antisemitism.

If you think I’m kidding, just try having a conversation with the taxi driver who brought you here or who is returning you to the airport – or with any casual acquaintance for that matter – about what you’re doing at this symposium today.

Chances are, in a nanosecond you’ll find yourself discussing definitions of antisemitism – something my fellow panellist Ken Marcus has lucidly written about in all its complexity and in a way that should advance the discussion considerably. Then, after you’ve introduced the topic, I’d be very surprised if you didn’t find the words ‘Holocaust’ and ‘Israel’ slipping into the same conversation.

As for me, I discovered long ago just how much of a hot potato talking about antisemitism was – about how even using the word can throw people into conniptions, make them defensive and derail their thought processes. How discussions frequently turn into arguments that sound like one or more versions of what David Hirsh neatly describes as the Livingstone Formulation – the so-called ‘use’ of the charge of antisemtism as way of rendering all criticism of Israel as taboo.

So that’s why we’re here: To learn, to study, to analyse, to examine, to forensically investigate, to diagnose and hopefully find antidotes for something that has been around for a very, very long time.

But studying it, learning about it doesn’t automatically lead to a cure – whatever that means. It can, instead, cause a person to become – there’s that word again – obsessed by it.

Because once you start digging into it, drilling down, parsing it, dissecting it – only then do you start to see how deftly it has adapted over the ages – Anthony Julius uses the term ‘inventive’ – and to manifest itself in a variety of guises and recensions.

In turn, this capacity to morph and adapt creates pitfalls all of its own.

I sometimes think that the study of antisemitism can lead to a kind of conversionary experience, like wearing infra-red glasses. It enables you to see it where you never thought it existed before. You begin to connect the dots. An expression of antisemitism in passing, even in the form of ‘genteel’ metaphor – can be seen as causally connected to the deepest, most invidious motivation – a mentalité so marinated in hatred that it is willing to exterminate itself – along with innocent men, women and children – in a Jerusalem pizza parlour or a hotel in Mumbai.

Question: If the antisemtic meme is toxic, is any strain safe?

***

Now what I’ve just done here – the way I’ve introduced the topic of “Talking About Antisemitism” serves as a short cut to a larger thesis I’ve been working on – an attempt to explain, with some degree of clarity, just what it is that makes the discussion of antisemitism so difficult.

I break it down into three broad categories.

First Difficulty. Antisemitism is difficult to talk about because it is conceptually difficult. Because of its complexity. Because of its component parts – so many of which have been around for so very long – emerging from antiquity and historical circumstances hugely different from our own, but nevertheless identifiable in their essence.

To this aspect of complexity we can add its historical provenances, its regional and folkloristic accretions, its conspiratorial role in apocalyptic and millennial thinking and its ability, as a baseline hatred and fear of the Jews – to mutate, adapt and somehow grow in complexity without ever really going away.

Think about it: How many of us fail to find ourselves gobsmacked – startled to the point of breathlessness – at the way some of the most ancient of libels about the Jews have resurfaced in the contemporary public space – as if the Enlightment, the Age of Reason, scientific revolutions and other advancements in technology and thinking – simply never happened?

And then there seems to be the utter irreducibility of these new forms of hatred – equally resistant to human progress – whereby one manifestation lays down its marker, only to be picked up on a conceptual and programmatic level years – even centuries later – with new tools of implementation?

I remember the first time I read Robert Wistrich’s discussion of English antisemitism – when he laid out in all its brutal simplicity the fact that after the Expulsion the idea of physically removing Jews – a novel ‘solution’ to the Jewish problem of its day – amounted to paradigm shift in hatred – one that would see its logical and mechanized implementation in the Final Solution as a harbinger to the Thousand Year Reich.

Which brings me to the Second Difficulty: antisemitism’s emotional charge. Antisemitism is emotionally difficult to talk about. As a form of hatred it’s impossible to encounter it, regardless of who you are and what faith you were raised in – without being affected on a very human, kishke (gut)-level.

Hate is hate – dress it up, make it elegant, use fancy words – if you are at all sensitive to it, you feel it. As Jews, for whom the historical narrative is so paramount to our faith – we feel it more than others. Our history is imbued with it. Our antennae are attuned to it. Ve-hi-she-amda.

But it is equally emotive for others – and sometimes we forget that. Like it or not, most people associate antisemitism with genocide, with the Holocaust. It is this ‘genocidal shadow’ or ‘holocaust penumbra’ that hovers over the word, making it sometimes difficult to utter in any kind of company.

And then, of course, there is the pitfall of being accused, when you do bring up the word antisemitism, of wearing your ‘Five Thousand Years of Bitterness’ on your sleeve – of being pegged as someone suffering from post-Holocaust trauma syndrome – and someone who always spoils the party with all this incessant talk about death and annihilation.

But it’s not just because of its genocidal associations that makes talking about antisemitism difficult.

For Jews, I believe it is also triggers something deeper, more insidious and what I would call genetically hurtful.

If you look hard at the fictions and libels of antisemitism that emerged with Early Church, the Middle Ages, and deep within the recesses of Islam – in other words, embedded within every faith that competes for supremacy and supersession to Judaism, you begin to identify a kind of theological toxin: if the New Faith is an elixir, the Old Faith must be poison.

Moreover this ‘logic’ has its own declension: Antisemitism becomes an evil mirror of the very axioms and tenets of Judaism which are – davka – of the most sublime and nuanced nature.

Take the concept of ‘chosenness’ – at the best of times a difficult idea to understand, but at its basis and in rabbinic thinking, a moral mandate for humility. Warped and twisted – it becomes Jewish supremacy and apartness. Or the concept of kedushah – and the laws of kashrut that derive from it: the exalted concept of holiness as seen in Judaism’s attitude towards the sanctity of blood and life itself.

Warped, twisted and mutated – these concepts coalesce and become the Blood Libel.

And the Third Difficulty when talking about antisemitism is the political component – a dimension that we are all too familiar with and which dominates most of our thinking on a daily basis.

This includes the lack of symmetry when raising the issue of antisemitism as opposed to racism, the impossibility of mentioning the phenomenon without someone bringing in Israel’s policies, conduct and foundational principles. And let’s not even start with the difficulty of explaining how anti-Zionism acts as a carrier for antisemitism to someone who barely has a clue as to the origins or definitions of either term.

So these three difficulties – conceptual, emotional, political – make talking about antisemtism a supremely challenging task.

But that, I suppose, is why we are here and why, after all the Hagaddah seeks remind us of the perennial nature of the enmity Jews face: So that we may find the tools, the concepts and the perspectives that enable us to talk about it in a way that others will understand.

In doing so, perhaps then we’ll be able to change our relationship to the phenomenon from obsession to a full-on, evidence-based and scientific commitment to keeping it in check.

Winston Pickett is the former director of the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and member of the editorial board of the Journal for the Study of Antisemtism (JSA). This essay was adapted from a paper delivered at JSA’s London Symposium last December.

11 Comments

Quite an amazing article. I think it needs to be said that outside of Moslems most non-Jewish people are not obsessed with hating Jews. The Moslem obsession relates more to Israel’s success than to innate hatred. More important than what nonJews think is what Jews think.

For many years I was a spokesperson for the rightwing or the Likud affiliate in the US. We have always been a small and disdained minority by American Jewry.That is because most American Jews believe that the way to deal with enemies is to appease them. We believe in confronting them.

In today’s context that would mean an aggressive campaign aimed at the American public telling in detail Jewish contribution to the success of this country. That accomplishment whether in education, business, life saving medicine, entertainment, charities, public policy far exceeds the contributions of any other ethnic group perhaps more than all the others put together.

We also need to be “outing” Jews who hide their identity. Organized gays used this technique as a way of explaining to the American public that many people that they held in high regard were gay.

Finally, support for Israel by American Jews; It is pathetically weak. How else explain the overwhelming Jewish vote for Obama combined with the lack of support for the present Israeli government. A visit to the annual Israel Independence Day parade will show that marchers are mostly from the Orthodox sector a small minority of the American Jewish population. Obama was and is the least supportive of Israel of any American president with the possible exception of Eisenhower. Yet Obama got far more Jewish votes than did his Republican opponents even though polls show far more support for Israel among Republicans than Democrats.

Having grown up in an era of Christian antisemitism I have always considered my mother’s analysis as valid. She Z”L used to say ” The Goyem hate us not bcause we supposedly killed their god but because we gave them G-d.” My interpretation now. We gave them morality and law. They could no longer live alke beasts. Apparently there are those who lever accepted this.

First of all “anti-Semitism” is a wrong ward/concept, because anti-Semitism means hatred of descents of Shem. But Arabs are also descents of Shem. So the real term should be hatred toward Jews.
The main reason for “anti-Semitism” is religious one, As Rav Seaadia Gaon stated – It is the hatred to the faith that has no substitution.
Researchers of “anti-Semitism” are looking for the reasons every where except under the lamp!!!

Dear Mr. Pickett,
I agree with you 100%! I was born Jewish and really only became a Zionist and more keenly aware of antisemitism after 9-11. Since then I read everything I can regarding Muslim hatred toward the Jewish people. Like you I am obsessed with this.

What surprises me about antisemitism is that there is no well known explanation or diagnostic understanding of it. There is much work to identify it clearly, and, of course, there are various theories about it, but there is no familiar, public exposition of what it is and why it happens. That may be true of racism, too, and perhaps of hate in general. I believe there is something in the human spirit, hidden to public view because we are all involved,that accounts for antisemitism. It is a little like political correctness–hard to talk about because half of us are committed within to its precepts, without seeing them for what they are. But antisemitism is deeper, more of a “silent killer.” I am not saying we are all doing it, because many today love the Jews and love Israel. But it is deep thing in the human spirit. It has something to do with how the Jews are NOT “the nations”: something their tradition does not buy into that humans in general do. Individual Jews may have about the same positions as anyone else, but the Tradition is linked to something God is doing long-term that the world resists.

First: Winston, welcome to the tribe. I have rarely felt more connecte to a fellow Jew than to you through this thought provoking article. You raise so many points I won’t comment on all of them. So here goes.
Saying Jews shouldn’t be obsessed with the Holocaust and anti semitism is the most anti semitic statement I know. I once read a study that stated that based on Roman census records, there should be 65 million Jews today. The difference, two thousand years of pesecution, oppression and murder. Food for thought. Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you. Just ask Stalin, Hitler and almost any Islamic leader today. The second most anti semitic thing I know is moral equivilence. There is NO moral equivilence to the Holocaust or the Islamic threats to Israel. A modern nation, within living memory tried to kill each and every one of us. And multiple Muslim leaders today boast they will finish the job. So keep up the fight. Because in every generation they HAVE risen up to destroy US!

Our family has generally regarded anti-Semitism as a disease not amenable to rational cure.
More than half of Israel’s Jewish population consists of refugees and their descendants from Arab/Muslim countries where they endured much abuse through the millenia. As Israeli soldiers, they may not always be able to resist “payback time” in not too subtle ways.

More...

Millionaire entrepreneur Yossi Vardi credited his success in start-ups to his Jewish mother continuously pushing him to do better, Daily Mail reported on Thursday. “Jewish mothers are never satisfied and nothing is ever good enough,” he said, adding that his mother, who died 15 years ago, used to compare him with his cousins and say he was “an idiot.” “For most of my life I have been trying to show her I’m not,” he continued. “I keep on trying even now.” Vardi, […]

Famed actor Seth Rogen on Tuesday unveiled with typical comic fanfare the trailer for his new Christmas film. The movie “was made by Jews… and opens on Thanksgiving,” Rogen pointed out on Twitter. The Night Before tells the tale of three “ride or die homies” celebrating one last debauchery-filled Christmas Eve reunion before they become too busy to keep up their annual tradition. In an effort to make the night as memorable as possible, they set out to find the “Nutcracka Ball – the […]

A June 2015 art exhibit, “The Transformative Power of Art,” at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, harnessed the universal language of art to convey an important message: “Our fragile Mother Earth faces the devastating consequences of climate change, a defining challenge of our time.” The exhibit also included sixteen portraits of people from all over the world who have “contributed to the common good of humanity in one way or another and have transformed the way we […]

A 32-year-old Circassian Israeli Muslim Mixed Martial Arts fighter from Abu Ghosh says he takes pride in fighting under the Israeli flag, Israel’s Walla reported on Sunday. Like most Circassian Israelis, Jackie “the Punishment” Gosh was born Sunni Muslim. He became observant about eight years ago, and is now scrupulous in following his religion’s tenets, praying five times a day and fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. Gosh is also very proud of his Israeli nationality, and sees no contradiction between […]

A new documentary explores the lives and work of Jewish and Arab rappers in Israel and how the ongoing conflict in the region has impacted their lyrics, the U.K.’s Jewish Chronicle reported on Thursday. Hip Hop in the Holy Land is a six-part series co-directed by Mike Skinner, the British frontman of hip-hop group The Streets, and produced by Noisey, a music channel published by Vice news. The first episode, published last week, shows Skinner meeting with Tamer Nafar, the founder of one of […]

New 49ers running back and Australian rugby star Jarryd Hayne apologized on Wednesday for a tweet in which he raised the age-old myth that Jews were historically responsible for Jesus Christ’s death. Reaching out to his Jewish fans, and the chairman of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission, Hayne tweeted: “To the Jewish community @DvirAbramovich #WeAreAllOne.” Underneath, he keenly included a screenshot of a text message to elaborate on his apology: “I sincerely apologize for my tweets on July 1. I […]

Israeli actress Gal Gadot reminisced about her childhood in Israel during an interview published in this month’s edition of Vanity Fair. “I don’t remember this, but my mom told me that when I was three they threw a party on the rooftop of the house. They put me to bed, and I heard people coming into the house and no one came to me. I went to the rooftop and took a hose and I started to spray water on everyone, just […]

An Israeli organization is helping wounded U.S. veterans move past their physical and psychological challenges by connecting them with injured Israeli soldiers who understand what they’ve been through. “What we discovered very early is that there’s no ‘professional, psychiatrist, social worker’ or anything like that [or] pills that can come even close to helping a soldier who fought in combat, who was wounded, who lost his friends. No one can help him like another person who’s been through exactly what he has,” Rabbi Chaim Levine, […]